Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Welcome to the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Find your writer tribe and kick insecurity to the curb! For regular interaction, join the IWSG Facebook Group here. Writers of all skill level and background ask questions and offer support.Follow the monthly IWSG blog hop here. Pick a number and visit a few blogs. Comment and make a friend!

Goal, Set, Check!

The blogging group I'm part of, the YABuccaneers, are in month 2 of our Spring Writing Bootcamp. Each week we check in on our Facebook group or on twitter to set goals, motivate each other, and report back. It got me thinking on goal setting and what works and what doesn't.

I love the concept of SMART goals. If you guessed that each of those letters stand for something, you're right!

Generic goal: finish the book by June 30!

This goal sets you up for failure. There is one objective, and if you don't meet it, you fail. Why do that to yourself?

SMART Goal: draft 3 new chapters by Friday

Specific: instead of "finishing" it's a set amount of chapters.

Measurable: there is a number of chapters indicated.

Achievable: the goal has a smaller chunk of a larger piece of work to do.

Realistic: this will depend on your ability--if you write 1k words daily, giving yourself a week to write 3 chapters is feasible. If you are a sporadic writer with slow output, maybe 1 or 2 chapters is more realistic.

Timely: a set day is named.

The best advice I can offer beyond setting SMART goals is to share your goals with at least one other person to keep you accountable. The IWSG group could be your accountability, or another writer friend.

What type of goal setting works for you? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!